‘Treating unequals, equally is a moral fraud’

New Delhi: A two-day national conference on ‘Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy’ began here in New Delhi today. The conference is being organised by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS) in collaboration with the Princeton University, USA. Inaugurating the conference, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh said that he was “very happy that this initiative has been taken because it comes at a very important phase of our national development.” He further added that the conference is being held at an opportune time when the deliberations of the conference can help the policies to become inclusive and provide a roadmap to further the commitment of removing discrimination in every sphere of life. The objective behind organising this conference is to bring together the studies that the IIDS has done in collaboration with the Princeton University. These studies explore discriminations in opportunities for employment for new graduates, hiring practices, attitudes, differences in earnings in private sector, etc. The studies are based on field research, providing fresh insights on the problem of social exclusion and discrimination faced by a number of social and cultural groups like the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes, the women, Muslims, semi-nomadic and de-notified tribes. On the occasion, Arjun Singh also released the issue of Economic and Political Weekly [VOL 42 No. 41 October 13 - October 19, 2007] that carried some of these studies. The topics chosen for the conference are all encompassing and leave hardly any aspect of social exclusion faced by the marginalized sections of Indian society. They include study of job applicants in India, attitudes in hiring among employers in India, education and discrimination, food security scheme and discrimination, minority status and labour market outcomes, changes in poverty levels by social groups, caste and ownership of business by social groups, health care utilisation among dalit children, etc. The scholars like Prof Sukhadeo Thorat (Chairman, University Grant Commission, India), Prof Paul Attewell (City University, New York), Prof Katherine Newman (Princeton University, USA), Prof V.K. Barooah (University of Ulster, Northern Ireland), Prof Geetha B Nambissan (Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi) Dr Firdaus Rizvi (IIDS, New Delhi) and many others will be presenting their papers over the next two days. The discussants include Prof Prabhat Patnaik (JNU), Yogendra Yadav (Center for the Study of Developing Societies) and Prof Praveen Jha (JNU) among others. Speaking about the conference, Prof Surinder Singh Jodhka from JNU said that the objective is to look at caste and other forms of social exclusions that have a contemporary context and relevance, as also the newer emerging forms of social exclusion and prejudice, which emerge from traditional structures of social hierarchy that has been inherited from past. Prof B.L. Mungekar, a Planning Commission member was of the view that it was “a moral fraud to treat equals, unequally and unequals, equally.” Prof Jodhka emphasized that at a time when India is growing very rapidly in an era of globalization, there is a need to understand the patterns of social structures that are emerging and how certain categories of population are being left behind. Talking of the inclusive policies that the Government of India has been pursuing since independence, Arjun Singh said: “These policies have yielded good results in terms of the achievement of educational and economic development. However, he admitted that in spite of the advancements made here, “we are still falling far short of the expectations of the deprived sections of Indian society.”

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